As you all know I’m heading to Vietnam next month for three weeks. Part of my planning for the BIG trip includes vaccinations. So I booked an appointment with my doctor last Thursday. Following the recommendations I asked for Typhoid fever, Malaria, Hepatitis A, Hapatitis B & Yellow fever. After reviewing my medical vaccinantion history it turns out the doctor would only give me a Typhoid shot, prescription for Malaria tablets and would require 4ml of blood to test if the other vaccinations were required.

Well, about one hour after receiving it I started to feel a little weird which turned quickly into pain. Thursday night was spent worrying about my throat closing up which meant I was gasping for air, had chest pains and kept thinking about whether I should head to Manly hospital down the road.

Friday I felt a little better in the morning but I soon turned south again after about three hours at work (like every day really haha), so I phoned the doctor to inform her of my symptions to which she advised that some were common and the chest pains more serious, and I should head to the hospital if conditions worsened. Well I decided to go home and rest as I felt really really tired. After about 10 hours sleep I woke up at about 11pm in a cold sweat, had a shower, ate some food and drank about 6 litres of water then went straight back to bed and slept another 10 hours.

Saturday was fairly good, only had a slight tickle in my throat.

Sunday was much better so Noemi & I decided to go on a short road trip to the Shire, Cronulla beach to be precise (no riots that day). I was fine for most of the day until I arrived home and started to feel little naucious and thirsty. The night was spent suffering again with an awful fever, woke up about 4am in a pool of sweat then managed to get back to sleep for another two hours.

Monday the fever had gone but an overnight cold developed. Sinus was going off in my face like a fire cracker but with Little Britain on that evening I knew something had to be done to get me there in one piece. After a short trip to the chemist and plenty of drugs I had a brilliant evening with only a little sniffing and heaps of laughing. If you are a fan of Little Britain, I highly recommend seeing their Live show.

Tuesday woke up with roughly 1000 birds churping outside in the trees, pounding headache, runny nose, chest pains and my sinuses playing up again. No work for me today!

Wednesday (today) still recovering from what can now be called a flu. Turns out I only need a Hepatits A shot but the doctor says I need to be healthy again before receiving it. Just reading up about the side effects of that now! Catching up with Natalie tonight which should be great, so I need a quick recovery like Monday night. Sorry to hear Ryan couldn’t make it out, G’day Millsy I hope the UK is still treating you well!

Having my doubts now about the Malaria tablets. If you travelled with me to Dahab Egypt then you’ll remember what I went through there on Malaria tablets.

Anyway, the point of this post is to warn you of the side effects you may experience with vaccinations.

If you can top the aforementioned experience, from any type of vaccination, then let me know in the comments below.

If you’ve been to either of the above countries, where would you recommend? I’ll be heading over there around March next year and if you have any tips, places to see, things to do, etc, etc. please let me know about them by commenting below.

I’ll fly into Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam then a three week open-itinery will begin. The current plan is to return to Ho Chi Minh City to fly home but I’m open to alternative.

One thing I’m really looking forward to are the vaccines I have to take, not! Polio, Tetanus, Typhoid, Hepatitis A and Malaria recommended, Hepatitis B Diphtheria Japanese Encephalitis and Rabies is sometimes recommended. Oh yeah! Maybe I should go to Wagga Wagga instead!

I’ve added some more photos:

NYE

Germany

The Church, London

Cambridge University, London

Another batch of photos from my 2000-2002 travels uploaded.

Morocco:Tangier> Marrakesh> Ouarzazate> Zagora> Tazzarine> Erfou> Tinerhir> Boumalne Du Dades> Marrakesh> Casablanca> Rabat> Meknes> Fes> Rabat> Oujda> Nador……. > Melilla (Spain)

Click here to view more photos of the trip (70 photos)

Today, we say farewell & wish ASM Giles all the best in his race across the Sahara Desert of western Egypt. Giles will have six(6) days to run, walk & crawl over 250km in fierce temperatures to reach the finish. He’ll be required to carry all his food, gear & clothing throughout the race….water is provided. His training for the event has included several morning runs covering large distances over Sydney streets & more recently the Sydney Marathon. Giles also came up with a few ideas to lighten the load, he had his Appendix removed & did a few practice runs down Elizabeth Street with no pants. Why is he doing this race? The most simple explaination is that he’s nuts but he also likes the spot light and with live coverage he should get his 5 minutes of fame. Plus return a man…….

For more information about the race click here